Monday 22 October 2018

A 5 month old update!

 

5 months! I've got to stop sounding so surprised at each month rolling around...because obviously Addison is getting older and growing up, but I'm still not totally over that news and it still takes my breath away that not so long ago she was this tiny helpless newborn whose day revolved around sleep and never being too far from some milk! and now she's this proper little human with a personality who giggles and enjoys things!


This age is so fun right now - I feel like I'll probably keep saying that as the future months roll around to, and I'll start to sound like a broken down record - but can you ever truly pick a favourite stage? 


I don't think so! You think every stage is better than the last, but then the next stage rolls around and that takes the cake again! but I really do love the banter we can have with her these days and how much more aware and into things she is.


She still continues to be one of the happiest babies around! When she's not giggling then she's smiling, when she's not smiling then she's squealing, when she's not squealing then she's cooing and chattering away. 

I wanted to add a few videos of Daddy and Ella making her giggle,


and this is just her happy little temperament, and how almost anytime you talk to her she will break into a smile! 


and how if you squeal at her she will squeal back, almost like a little conversation! 


 She always seems pretty happy with life...


unless you catch her during a teething moment, and then she is pretty grumpy indeed - but who can blame her! It has been matchstick monkey to the rescue (who is apparently the new Sophie giraffe)


and this frozen watermelon has also been helping hit the spot to soothe those sore toothypegs! She seems to be right on the cusp of her first upper tooth breaking through - we can see it and are just waiting for it to fully appear.


She still loves to suck her two middle fingers, and I just adore how she does this! Even when she was in her door bouncer the one day, she suddenly started sucking them like she was just chilling, hanging out in there! It was too cute.


Speaking of her door bouncer, we put it up for the first time and were excited to see how she would like it.  


I think she's still a bit young for it, as there wasn't a whole lot of bouncing going on but she seemed to just enjoy seeing the world from a different angle! and likes to just hang out in there sometimes.


She was also gifted a jumperoo from one the mum's at a our baby group, and I have wanted one of these for so long! so I think I'm probably more excited about it than she is at the moment! 


but she tried it out for the first time and seemed pretty taken with her new toy! I envision in the future this will be a great way for me to get some baking done! 


She is getting better at tummy time for longer periods - she loves to look at all of big sister's fun toys while she does some! I've also noticed that she now can sit upright for a short while if she is balanced on you so I'd imagine at some point soon she will start sitting independently, which is pretty exciting and also tear inducing! 


I have several (okay dozens) of pictures in my phone of Addison sleeping! So I don't really have a breaking announcement to do with any of them, other than the fact I just think she is a really adorable sleeper. That bottom lip in particular gets me every time! so I wanted to document some of them here in her little round up! 





She still really loves the bath, and even when the water starts to get run and we lay her down beside the bath and strip her off her little legs kick like crazy and she gets so excited! She also gets to have fun with big sis in the bath - Daddy captured this cute moment between the two of them the other day! 


She got gifted this adorable hooded towel by our lovely ex-neighbour Pippa, from when we lived in Wales.  It is the softest loveliest material, and I just love wrapping her up in it after bathtime! 


I really need to see this month about taking her to some little swimming classes because I just know she would love it! 


We also try and have a little massage before bed on the days when she isn't desperately hungry already...


which brings me on to our last baby massage class which happened this month.  We were attending a block of 6 weekly sessions which we both just loved! Addison really enjoyed being massaged (can you tell from that pic up there?! I mean if that isn't the poster image for promoting baby massage right there than I don't know what is!)

I also learnt so much about the amazing powers massage can have for babies, and I got to meet lots of lovely other mums and our teacher even baked cake for us at the end of each session! So we are super sad it is over, but we had a great mummy meet up for lunch after our last session and I just loved that view behind our table of all the prams lined up! 


By some miracle, Addison fell asleep on the walk from where our class was around to the garden centre where we lunched. This never happens, but I celebrated a little too soon because of course as soon as my food was put down in front of me she awoke! 


We will miss our Tuesday morning sessions, but have been busy meeting up with our new baby pals since it finished.  

Just chilling with baby Lana,


and baby Cohen (Addi's future boyfriend - every time they get together they somehow end up holding hands!!),


who we also discovered live just round the corner in our neighbourhood so we've been starting little baby playdates for the three of them too which is really sweet.

We took a trip to the coast one super sunny Saturday afternoon.  It was Addison's first time at the beach, and she seemed to love it! 


She was really mesmerised by the waves running back and forth, so much so that she managed a whole trip in the sling with no tears!! 


I thought it was a fluke, but then last week it happened again at Bowmont one sunny Sunday evening...so I'm beginning to think she might have changed her mind on the sling which is good news  for adventuring some more!


She also had her first trip to a pumpkin patch, which was so epic that it needed a blog post all of its own!


We are so excited for Halloween around these parts!


Ella asked for this little photo shoot all on her own!


Their sibling bond just grows stronger with each passing day!


and Ella is forever asking me to take photos of the two of them together, which I am obviously only too willing to do!


I bought them these matching mustard pinafore dresses, and it was almost too much cuteness to handle!


I love Addi's little belly poking out in this one!


and her little smile - always so excited to be involved!


I fear she is going to grow to be a TV addict just like Ella! she loves the screen! 


but I think she loves cosying up to big sis even more!


They even like to watch baby Einstein together! (despite it being just for babies - Ella is also a fan and gets excited when Addison gets animated about her favourite parts!)


Reading books together is still a firm favourite,


 especially in front of the fire now the chillier days are here!


This girl has the best smiles! (and check out that quiff she was rocking that day!)



She brightens all my days!



 Addison also found her toes this month! She thinks they're pretty fun, and likes to try and eat them! 


and a final picture of the 4 of us! It is super grainy since it was still dark when I took it, but one Sunday morning as we were sharing some family snuggles I wanted to capture the moment.  After I took it I realised just how much Ella is my mini me, and how much Addison is a mini Byron! 


My heart explodes when I look at these 3 and realise they are mine for life! I hope all of our days are filled with as much joy as this Sunday morning snuggle was.

Thursday 18 October 2018

Pumpkin Patch Fun in the Sun at Craigie's Farm!


If there's one thing I feel passionately about it's pumpkin patches!! I always saw my American and Canadian friends having such fun days out at amazingly organised pumpkin patches full to the brim with fun things for kids to see and do, and dozens of different varieties of pumpkins! It felt like the UK was never going to catch up! and then all of a sudden they are becoming a thing now, much to my delight!! 
It's been a fun little tradition we started with Ella's first halloween and I've tried to find ones to go to every year since! 


The first year was a real deal pumpkin patch called Malpas Pumpkins, just near to Chester.  We dressed Ella up as a pumpkin for the part! and since it was our 1st ever time on a patch we loved everything about it - from the amazing corn maze filled with spooky characters to loading up your wheelbarrow with the pumpkins you picked! 


The next year we had moved to the Borders, and much to my disappointment there were none nearby! We ended up venturing to Northumberland, to a farm shop - Brockbushes, to check out their 'patch'.  I was pretty disappointed that they had just thrown some hay down and hidden some shop bought pumpkins underneath! They did do a fun little skit about a good witch and a bad witch and you got a tractor ride to the 'patch' but it was a bit of a let down especially after how good our previous one had been! 


So I knew our third year had to be awesome! and it was! I found Arnprior Pumpkins just outside of Stirling, and it was worth the drive! It was a huuuuuge patch! with pumpkins everywhere.  They had all these cute photo ops, and a hay bale mountain for the kids to climb, and you could pull up a turnip and they had a kale maze too!


Last year, we didn't end up going to any kind of patch! but Byron said we didn't need to since we had our own one in our veggie patch in the garden! We managed to grow some pretty good pumpkins, and so I still got a little photo op out of it! 


We checked out a new one this year, it's just at a farm shop on the outskirts of Edinburgh - Craigie's - so I wasn't expecting much.  I had seen on their website that they grow them in poly tunnels and so I assumed they would then just dump them in a little patch of grass for people to pick but how wrong I was! 


I was super excited to get there and discover a pretty big patch, with some still attached to the vine too! 


and with the Firth of Forth in the background, it made for a pretty scenic spot! Ella was very excited and cried 'I can see the sea'!! 


I dressed Addison up in her little pumpkin outfit from Granny Kathy, and of course Ella didn't want to be left out so she donned her witch costume from last year...complete with hand made wand!

 

Addi really enjoyed her first time at a pumpkin patch! and loved all the smiles that everyone was giving her when they saw her in her cute costume! 


I think this was the moment she realised she was dressed like the orange things she was sitting beside! 


Every day preceding the day we went had been gale force winds and grey and rainy! So we lucked out with the most epic blue sky day, and it was actually 22 degrees! which was freakishly warm for an October day but we certainly weren't complaining! We went and checked out the pumpkins in the poly tunnels too. 


Pumpkins as far as the eye can see! the crooked stalk ones are my fave! 


They must have had at least 7 or 8 different varieties! even more than we had discovered on the real deal patch at Stirling.  Ella was especially partial to these blue ones! 


whilst I was keen on these yellow ones, and I loved the way the sun was hitting them just right! 


Since I was holding the camera, and a baby, Ella did the honours of carrying the pumpkins around for me and picking the best one! 


Once we were done with all the picking, we checked out their cute farm shop which is full of the yummiest treats and Ella had a play at the park.


and a little pic of the two of us, just to prove I was there joining in the fun too! 


We also said hey to the piggies before we left, and Ella was so excited to check in all the egg boxes by the chickens and see who had been laying! 


All in all, it was one of my favourite pumpkin patch experiences by far, and I loved our little haul we came away with!


We had headed into Edinburgh itself in the morning, and oh how that city lends itself to autumn! 


It's not even at full peak yet, but the colours were still looking lovely! 

I took Ella to Lush - her fave shop, she is obsessed with bath bombs! She had got a rather wonderful report at her first parents evening 2 weeks ago and so I promised her some lush goodies as a reward to say well done! 


She had so much fun carefully selecting which bath bombs she wanted, and was especially pleased that all the staff in there made such a fuss of her in her costume! She even turned the lady who served us into a frog, who played along complete with ribbet sound effects!! 


Of course no Edinburgh trip is ever complete without Ben's Cookies! 
Ella insisted we find a nice sunny spot on a bench to eat them on, so we picked this one in Princes St Gardens.


Ella then told me she wanted me to pop Addi's pumpkin hat on so that I could take photos of the two of them in the leaves! Be still my beating heart! The day my child requests a photo shoot is the best day! Of course I was only to happy to oblige!


We found this rather leafy spot, and it was gorgeous with the sun streaming through! 


I wish this picture had audio - she was running around like a crazy person, kicking and throwing leaves in the air shouting 'I love autumn, autumn is just the best'! 


It was too cute! Love her enthusiasm for everything!


and I just can't handle the cuteness of these pics of the two of them! 


Look at Addison's little face! Ever the willing model! I think this one's a framer!


I loved this one - Ella sneaking in some kisses! and her hat obscuring Addison from view, but such a sweet little moment captured! 


I am so grateful these two are mine!